Single-cell and multi-omics analysis reveals the role of stem cells in prognosis and immunotherapy of lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Background: The roles of stem cells in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) progression and therapeutic resistance have been recognized, yet their impact on patient prognosis and immunotherapy response remains unclear.

Methods: Single-cell RNA sequencing was performed to identify stem cell populations characterized by high expression of MKI67 and STMN1. Key marker genes were identified using the FindAllMarkers function, and these genes were subsequently analyzed for mutations, copy number variations, and prognostic significance in LUAD patients.

The Critical Role of APOE+ Macrophages in the Immune Microenvironment and Prognosis of Lung Adenocarcinoma.

The immunoregulatory functions and clinical implications of APOE+ macrophages within the tumour microenvironment of lung adenocarcinoma remain incompletely defined. In this study, single-cell transcriptome analysis revealed distinct subsets of APOE+ macrophages, and subsequent CellChat analyses highlighted that these cells predominantly interact with other components of the tumour microenvironment via MIF-(CD74+CXCR4) and MIF-(CD74+CD44) signalling pathways, thereby contributing to the establishment of an immunosuppressive milieu. Integrating mutation profiles with multiple machine learning techniques, we developed an APOE+ Macrophage-related Risk Model (ARM) through a combination of RSF and Ridge approaches, achieving the highest prognostic accuracy (C-index) among all tested algorithms.

Prediction of pressure drop in heavy oil water ring based on modified two fluid model.

Accurate prediction of pressure drop of the heavy oil-water ring flow in pipeline is of great significance for establishing an optimal drag reduction model and ensuring safe production. The effects of different factors on the flow pattern and pressure drop of heavy oil-water annular two-phase flow were systematically analyzed, and a standard two-fluid pressure drop prediction model for annular flow was established. By modifying the shear stress equation of oil-water interface and introducing the wave-flow theory to modify the shear stress equation of water wall, a pressure drop prediction model for the generalized concentric water ring was obtained to calculate the periodic fluctuations of oil phase.

SENP1 Promotes Caspase-11 Inflammasome Activation and Aggravates Inflammatory Response in Murine Acute Lung Injury Induced by Lipopolysaccharide.

Background: Infection is the leading cause of acute lung injury (ALI). Macrophages, which are pivotal innate immune cells, play a critical role in mediating inflammatory processes. Intracellular lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from invasive Gram-negative bacteria can activate the caspase-11 inflammasome, leading to the induction of pyroptosis in macrophages.

Biogenesis, Mode of Action and the Interactions of Plant Non-Coding RNAs.

The central dogma of genetics, which outlines the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein, has long been the guiding principle in molecular biology. In fact, more than three-quarters of the RNAs produced by transcription of the plant genome are not translated into proteins, and these RNAs directly serve as non-coding RNAs in the regulation of plant life activities at the molecular level. The breakthroughs in high-throughput transcriptome sequencing technology and the establishment and improvement of non-coding RNA experiments have now led to the discovery and confirmation of the biogenesis, mechanisms, and synergistic effects of non-coding RNAs.

Integrating multiple machine learning methods to construct glutamine metabolism-related signatures in lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: Glutamine metabolism (GM) is known to play a critical role in cancer development, including in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), although the exact contribution of GM to LUAD remains incompletely understood. In this study, we aimed to discover new targets for the treatment of LUAD patients by using machine learning algorithms to establish prognostic models based on GM-related genes (GMRGs).

Methods: We used the AUCell and WGCNA algorithms, along with single-cell and bulk RNA-seq data, to identify the most prominent GMRGs associated with LUAD.

Surfactant-enhanced bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soil and microbial community response: A field study.

Surfactant-enhanced bioremediation (SEBR) is frequently employed to clean up soil polluted with petroleum hydrocarbons, but few studies have focused on how surfactants affect microbial communities and different fractions of petroleum hydrocarbons, particularly in the field. Here, the surfactants sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS), alpha olefin sulfonate (AOS), Triton X-100 (TX-100), Tween80, and rhamnolipid were combined with the oil-degrading bacterium Pseudomonas sp. SB to remediate oil-contaminated soil in the laboratory.

Comparison of pulmonary function changes between patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy prior to minimally invasive esophagectomy: a randomized and controlled trial.

Purpose: Adequate pulmonary function is important for patients undergoing surgical resection of esophageal cancer, especially those that received neoadjuvant therapy. However, it is unknown if pre-operative radiation affects pulmonary function differently compared to chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in pulmonary function between patients undergoing minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy.

Distributed Averaging Problems of Agriculture Picking Multi-Robot Systems Sampled Control.

Distributed control of agriculture picking multi-robot systems has been widely used in the field of smart agriculture, this paper aims to explore the distributed averaging problems of agriculture picking multi-robot systems under directed communication topologies by taking advantage of the sampled data. With the algebraic graph theory concepts and the matrix theory, a distributed protocol is proposed based on the nearest sampled neighbor information. It is shown that under the proposed protocol, the states of all agents can be guaranteed to reach average consensus whose value is the averaging of the initial states of all agents.

A Combined Approach for Accurate and Accelerated Teeth Detection on Cone Beam CT Images.

Teeth detection and tooth segmentation are essential for processing Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) images. The accuracy decides the credibility of the subsequent applications, such as diagnosis, treatment plans in clinical practice or other research that is dependent on automatic dental identification. The main problems are complex noises and metal artefacts which would affect the accuracy of teeth detection and segmentation with traditional algorithms.

Highly Efficient MicroRNA Delivery Using Functionalized Carbon Dots for Enhanced Conversion of Fibroblasts to Cardiomyocytes.

Introduction: The reprogramming of induced cardiomyocytes (iCMs) is of particular significance in regenerative medicine; however, it remains a great challenge to fabricate an efficient and safe gene delivery system to induce reprogramming of iCMs for therapeutic applications in heart injury. Here, we report branched polyethyleneimine (BP) coated nitrogen-enriched carbon dots (BP-NCDs) as highly efficient nanocarriers loaded with microRNAs-combo (BP-NCDs/MC) for cardiac reprogramming.

Methods: The BP-NCDs nanocarriers were prepared and characterized by several analytical techniques.

Inhibition of Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase-4 Prevents Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion-Induced Remote Lung Injury.

Ischemia reperfusion (IR) can lead to acute kidney injury and can be complicated by acute lung injury, which is one of the leading causes of acute kidney injury-related death. Peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 (PAD4) is a member of the PAD enzyme family and plays a critical role in inflammatory reactions and neutrophil extracellular trap formation in a variety of pathological conditions. It has been reported that PAD4 inhibition can protect certain organs from ischemic injury.

Distributed Controller Design and Analysis of Second-Order Signed Networks With Communication Delays.

This article concentrates on dealing with distributed control problems for second-order signed networks subject to not only cooperative but also antagonistic interactions. A distributed control protocol is proposed based on the nearest neighbor rules, with which necessary and sufficient conditions are developed for consensus of second-order signed networks whose communication topologies are described by strongly connected signed digraphs. Besides, another distributed control protocol in the presence of a communication delay is designed, for which a time margin of the delay can be determined simultaneously.

Oestrogen Receptor β Activation Protects Against Myocardial Infarction via Notch1 Signalling.

Purpose: Oestrogen receptor β is believed to exert a cardioprotective effect against ischaemic injury. Nonetheless, the mechanism underlying its protective action remains to be fully elucidated. Recently, increased attention has been focused on Notch1 signalling for ameliorating cardiac ischaemic injury.

Inhibition of peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 protects against myocardial infarction induced cardiac dysfunction.

Peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 (PAD4), a PAD enzyme family member, catalyzes the posttranslational conversion of arginine residues to citrulline in target proteins. Although PAD4 is believed to play a crucial role in various pathological conditions such as infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and ischemic conditions, the effect of PAD4 in myocardial infarction (MI)-induced cardiac injury remains to be examined. Here, we hypothesize that PAD4 contributes to cardiac ischemic injury by exacerbating the inflammatory response and promoting neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation after MI.

Further Results for Edge Convergence of Directed Signed Networks.

The edge convergence problems have been explored for directed signed networks recently in 2019 by Du, Ma, and Meng, of which the analysis results, however, depend heavily on the strong connectivity of the network topologies. The question asked in this article is: whether and how can the edge convergence be achieved when the strong connectivity is not satisfied? The answer for the case of spanning tree is given. It is shown that if a signed network is either structurally balanced or r-structurally unbalanced, then the edge state can be ensured to converge to a constant vector.

Silk fibroin/poly(L-lactic acid-co-ε-caprolactone) electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds exert a protective effect following myocardial infarction.

Electrospinning using biocompatible polymer scaffolds, seeded with or without stem cells, is considered a promising technique for producing fibrous scaffolds with therapeutic possibilities for ischemic heart disease. However, no optimal scaffolds for treating ischemic heart disease have been identified thus far. In the present study, it was evaluated whether electrospun silk fibroin (SF)-blended poly(L-lactic acid-co-ε-caprolactone) [P(LLA-CL)] scaffolds that were seeded with cluster of differentiation 117 (c-kit) bone marrow (BM) cells may serve a protective role in cardiac remodeling following myocardial infarction (MI).

Edge Convergence Problems on Signed Networks.

This paper focuses on characterizing edge dynamics of signed networks subject to both cooperative and antagonistic interactions and copes with the state convergence problems of the resulting edge systems. To represent the two competitive classes of interactions that emerge in signed networks, signed digraphs are adopted and the relevant edge Laplacian matrices are introduced, with which an edge-based distributed protocol is presented. The relation between the edge Laplacian matrix and the structural balance (or unbalance) of a signed digraph is disclosed by taking advantage of properties of undirected cycles.

Glia maturation factor beta is required for reactive gliosis after traumatic brain injury in zebrafish.

Gliosis is a hallmark of neural pathology that occurs after most forms of central nervous system (CNS) injuries including traumatic brain injury (TBI). Identification of genes that control gliosis may provide novel treatment targets for patients with diverse CNS injuries. Glia maturation factor beta (GMFB) is crucial in brain development and stress response.

Use of human aortic extracellular matrix as a scaffold for construction of a patient-specific tissue engineered vascular patch.

Synthetic or biologic materials are usually used to repair vascular malformation in congenital heart defects; however, non-autologous materials show both mismatch compliance and antigenicity, as well as a lack of recellularization on its surface. Here, we constructed a tissue-engineered vascular patch (TEVP) using decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold obtained from excised human aorta during surgery, which was seeded with patient-derived bone marrow CD34-positive (CD34+) progenitor cells. While cellular components were removed, the decellularized ECM scaffold retained native ECM composition, similar mechanical performance to undecellularized aortic tissue, and supported the adhesion, survival and proliferation of CD34+ progenitor cells.

Characterization and functional elucidation of CD8+AT2+ lymphocytes in human thoracic aortic aneurysm.

Human thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is one of the most fatal cardiovascular diseases. However, the underlying molecular mechanism behind this disease remains uncertain. Previous studies have proven the importance of angiotensin II receptor type 2 (AT2) and endothelial cells in aneurysm pathology.

Fisetin regulates astrocyte migration and proliferation in vitro.

Fisetin (3,3',4',7-tetrahydroxyflavone) is a plant flavonol found in fruits and vegetables that has been reported to inhibit migration and proliferation in several types of cancer. Reactive astrogliosis involves astrocyte migration and proliferation, and contributes to the formation of glial scars in central nervous system (CNS) disorders. However, the effect of fisetin on the migration and proliferation of astrocytes remains unclear.

c-kit(+)AT2R(+) Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cell Subset Is a Superior Subset for Cardiac Protection after Myocardial Infarction.

Although the bone marrow mononuclear cell (BMMNC) is known as an ideal cell type for cell-based therapy for MI treatment, the effective subpopulation still remains unknown. Our study aimed at identifying the optimal subset of BMMNCs suited for cardiac regeneration. In this study, we observed that MI led to (i) a significant increase of the c-kit(+)AT2R(+) BMMNC subpopulation in mice and (ii) a modest increase of AT2R(+) BMMNCs in humans.

Estrogen Receptor α and β in Mouse: Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Proliferation, Migration, and Brown Adipogenesis In Vitro.

Background/aims: Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) belong to mesenchymal stem cells and may play a potential role as seeding cells in stem cell transplantation. To be able to exploit stem cells as therapeutic tool, their defects in some important cellular functions, such as low survival rate and cellular activity, should be considered. This is especially the case for stem cells that are intended for transplantation.